What Makes a Bully a Cyberbully? Unravelling the Characteristics of Cyberbullies across Twenty-Five European Countries

Abstract

The characteristics of bullies who act face to face and those who do so in cyberspace were compared directly in one sample across 25 countries. The nature of cross-country differences due to their technological infrastructure was also explored. Cyberbullies compared to face-to-face bullies were more likely to engage in risky online activities, spend more time online, and were finding it easier to be themselves online. Private access to the internet did not make a difference. Gender differences showed girls more likely to be cyber-than face-toface bullies when a profile on a social networking site was present. Age and internet ability beliefs were also positively but not independently associated with cyberbullying. Cross-country differences were small and patterns remained mostly stable across countries, suggesting that individual and not country-level characteristics are pivotal in explaining cyberbullying.

Schools and Cyberbullying: Problem Perception, Current Actions and Future Needs

“…To date, most research has focused on describing the current situation with regard to cyberbullying, addressing such aspects as the prevalence of cyberbullying (Riebel, Jäger, & Fischer, 2009), the profiles of bullies (Görzig & Ó lafsson, 2012) and victims (Katzer, Fetchenhauer, & Belschak, 2009), and the impact of cyberbullying (Bonanno & Hymel, 2013) in addition to related definitional and measurement issues (Menesini & Nocentini, 2009). Most of these situation analysis studies are based on surveys among young people.…”

Cyberbullying: What's the problem?

“…The study found that online aggression was typically distinct from traditional bullying as there was more reciprocal, back and forth interactions where the same individual would often be both victim and aggressor. Finally, bullying rates have traditionally been higher in males than females; however, online gender differences do not play as large of a role (Görzig and Ólafsson ; Navarro and Jasinski ).…”

Risicogedrag en het wereldwijde web - De invloed van gezin en samenleving op het online risicogedrag van adolescenten vanuit een Europees perspectief

“…Sociale netwerksites, zoals Facebook, zijn binnen korte tijd enorm populair geworden (Lenhart e.a., 2010), en adolescenten zijn experts op het gebied van online communiceren (Valkenburg & Peter, 2011). Jongeren gaan echter ook vaak lichtzinnig te werk bij het produceren en gebruiken van online informatie (Deursen, Van Dijk & Peeters, 2011;Fogel & Nehmad, 2009;Walraven, Brand-Gruwel & Boshuizen, 2009), hetgeen kan leiden tot negatieve online ervaringen (Görzig & Ólafsson, 2013;Peter & Valkenburg, 2006). Vergelijkend onderzoek naar specifiek online risicogedrag is schaars.…”